


paint my face with tears that don't feel the same

by NepetaLeijon27



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Genre: Gen, JFA Spoilers, POV Antagonist, based on a really crazy prompt, partly assumes the events of 'someone i used to know'
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:07:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28009707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NepetaLeijon27/pseuds/NepetaLeijon27
Summary: ‘But sure, dude, let’s do it.’ Matt shrugs.‘What the hell do I have to lose now?’
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

It was way past midnight, but Matt had not yet caught an inch of sleep.

Granted, the prison bed he had in his cell was nowhere as good at the one back at his mansion, but, having been in prison for almost a year, he was getting used to it. _What if_ , that thought kept him busy. And instead of thinking what could have been, his mind keeps running in circles about how this can get any worse.

There were nights that he awoke from a particularly bad nightmare, either concerning Shelly or Celeste. He hated those nights, but he probably hated nights like this more - where he couldn’t get any sleep at all. _What if they catch Shelly_ , he thought, _and he is sent to this same prison_? He tries to set it out of his head, but everytime he has thrown away one, another makes place for it. _What if someone is spying on me from here_? It’s not like forcing someone to spy on him from inside this prison is below Shelly, he knows.

Then again. _Is there anything that’s below Shelly_? 

_I don’t think anything is_. He sits up straight, and sighs deeply as he closes his eyes. As he opens them, something is there.

‘What the hell…?’ 

A white, almost shining creature is sitting in front of him. If Matt would try to describe it, he’d say it has ‘the tail of a fox, the ears of a rabbit, the body of a weasel and the head of a cat’. He looks away, then back again, but it is still there. ‘Okay. What the hell was in that prison food. I already thought it was a bit too salty today.’ 

The creature doesn’t seem to disappear, and Matt starts to think that he really did fall asleep, finally, and that this is a dream.

‘Matt.’

It suddenly speaks up, making Matt’s heart skip a beat. ‘Oh god. Someone put a talking animal in here. I really wonder who decided to prank me this time.’

‘Well, I can assure you no one’s pranking you here.’, it says, and Matt tries to think if he’s ever heard that voice before. He realizes that this creature may not at all be sent by someone. 

‘But I’ve heard of your story, and I think I can save your life.’

‘Save...my...life.’ He repeats it as if he’s a slow-to-understand parrot, letting the entire situation get to him. _Okay. Some weird cat-rabbit kinda animal is not only capable of talking to me, but is also saying it can save me. What do I do if this is really not a dream?_

‘How the hell are you going to do that, exactly?’

The creature tilts its head. ‘You can form a contract with me, and become a Puer Magi. Not trying to force you do anything, but…’

It’s long ago he had a similar offer, and he doesn’t want to think too long about how that ended. ‘Last contract got me hunted by an assassin, dude…’ A drop of sweat falls on the ground as he says that. But he thinks it over another time. It’s not like he hasn’t hit rock bottom yet, and his possessions were long ago separated from him and he was forced to disown them once he went to prison. So…

‘But sure, dude, let’s do it.’, he shrugs. ‘What the hell do I have to lose now?’

‘Fine by me.’, It steps a little closer to him. ‘So, you can tell me one thing you really want, and you’ll get it. Nothing is impossible with me, especially if you’re the one I seek.’

Matt sighs deeply again, and he clears his mind for a moment. He surely doesn’t want to mess up the metaphorical ‘get out of jail for free’ card that’s sitting in front of him. But this does not last long, and once he has himself together, he tells it what he wants. And then...

‘Hmm. Very well.’ 

Then, the pain starts, and two thoughts run through his head. One, _was this a good idea_ , and two, _holy shit, something’s certainly happening_. Lucky for him, it doesn’t last too long, before he feels something in his hands. A sly grin slowly appears on his face. _This is going to be such fun_.

* * *

Not long after, Miles Edgeworth is rudely awoken by an incoming call. 

‘Ah…’ He rubs his eyes in order to focus quickly. As he picks up his phone, he sees who has the guts to call him this late at night. _Gumshoe_. He still decides to answer.

‘Gumshoe, why are you calling me at this hour?’

‘I-I’m sorry! But it’s an emergency!’

Miles sighs deeply. ‘Did you accidentally drop your watch in the river again?’

‘Not this time!’, Gumshoe sounds as if he was frantically searching for words to describe the situation. ‘I just found Shelly de Killer’s body!’

Miles tries his best not to utter an expletive, but doesn’t succeed at that entirely. ‘What in the world? I’ll be there as soon as possible!’ He quickly changes clothes and grabs the stuff he needed, while still talking to Gumshoe. ‘Where did you find it?’ 

‘I’ll just send you my location!’ 

Not long after, Miles gets his location. ‘Hmm. That’s a small backstreet.’ he mumbles, but he knows where it was and gets into his car. As he drives towards the place, he asks Gumshoe how he found the body.

‘I wanted to go home after being stumped by paperwork.’, he explains, having calmed down a little. ‘And I wanted to take a shortcut today since, you know, everything I wanted was just to go home and sleep as fast as possible. Then I stumbled upon it…’

‘Did you already call forensics?’ A thousand thoughts run through Miles all at once, but one just keeps repeating. _That guy has made many enemies for sure, it’ll be hard to pin a definite suspect on this_.

‘T-they should be on their way!’

* * *

It does not take long for Miles to arrive. ‘There you are!’ Gumshoe cries out, clearly relieved that Miles came, but Miles’s focus shifts to the body.

‘Hmm.’, he mumbles. ‘This does look like something premeditated.’ He points to a wound in Shelly’s neck. 

‘E-exactly! But I swear, it wasn’t me!’ the detective pleads.

Miles closes his eyes and shakes his head. ‘I’ll need to have you tell what you saw officially. And ask the neighborhood if they saw something.’ Gumshoe takes some quick notes at that.

At that moment, the forensics team's cars stop not far from the crime scene and Ema steps out along with the rest.

‘Man…’, is the first thing Ema utters. Her hair is still messy. ‘Way to keep me out of my sleep. Anyway…’ She kneels down and starts observing the body from a respectable distance as not to taint any possible evidence.

‘And?’ Miles asked. 

‘It must’ve happened very recently.’, she concludes, as other members of forensics surround the place with the familiar yellow-black tape. ‘Rigor hasn’t set in yet. And from what I can conclude as of now, I suspect that it happened not long after midnight. Somewhere between 03:00 and 3:30 AM.’ Gumshoe has always admired how experienced people from forensics could see such a thing at a few seconds of seeing a body. 

Miles nods, and moves his hand to his chin. ‘The wound. Can you already see what probably caused it? There is no weapon here.’

Ema then looks a little closer at the wound, and her expression darkens. ‘True, there’s no weapon here. It seems like he was stabbed, and the weapon was pulled out afterwards. Two things are likely: one, that the culprit has got rid of the weapon in some way, or that they still have it with them.’

She gestures to the wound. ‘He was hit below the base of the skull, where the spinal cord exits the brain. Because this severed all brain connections the second it happened, assume he was dead before he even hit the ground.’

The prosecutor crosses his arms. ‘Nasty, indeed. The problem is, de Killer has many enemies. Anyone who wanted revenge or got too fed up with the guy could have done this.’

While Ema tells all these things to Miles, Gumshoe gets another call. 

‘What? When did that happen?’

His loud shouting makes Miles break away from the conversation with Ema. ‘What’s the matter, Gumshoe?’

The detective looks up at him with a shocked expression on his face. ‘Matt Engarde has just escaped from prison!’

Miles sighs deeply, for the second time tonight. _I have the feeling it’s going to be a long night_.


	2. Chapter 2

The escaped convict isn’t too far from the crime scene, in fact. ‘Godspeed.’, he mumbles. ‘But you won’t find the weapon. Nor me.’ Still, he knows very well he’s a wanted man again.

‘Was wasting your magic like that really necessary?’ 

The creature is still next to him, but Matt is under the impression no one but he can see it. ‘I’ve got my reasons. That bastard deserved it.’, He tilts his head. ‘You already know my story, you just said so. And thanks to you, I can get away with everything I do. They won’t get me in a million years.’

As he takes a glance at the wall next to him, he sees something stuck in it. ‘Huh.’ He knows it’s probably not important and he shouldn’t pay attention to it. However, something inside tells him not to ignore it. 

‘What the hell is this…?’ He reaches out to grab it out of the wall, but as he does so, a brightly glowing seal appears on the wall. Matt frowns, but still touches it out of curiosity. 

‘Huh.’ His hand doesn’t feel brick when he touches it, and he realizes he could hide in the space behind this seal for a moment, since he’s still in the neighborhood of the prison and the crime scene. 

As he steps in, space warps around him into something otherworldly. ‘Where the fuck…’ he curses, but the creature apparently came along with him. 

‘You’ve found a witch barrier.’, it tells him, but he’s none the wiser since he has no idea what it is. ‘You’ll have to get rid of the witch that’s deep inside here to get out and replenish your spilled magic.’ Matt still has the feeling it’s condemning him for killing Shelly with his magical weapon, but puts it aside.

To his own expectations, Matt quickly adjusts to the barrier. And although he still doesn’t know what the witch is he heard about, he thinks he can get out without too much of a hassle. But the witch is not the first thing he notices in the centre room. 

‘Adrian Andrews?’ _This is the last place where I’d expect her to be around this time_. However, she doesn’t seem to be aware of his presence at all. Matt frowns as he sees the empty look on her face, but then notices a strange mark on her neck, resembling the seal he entered through. A plan starts forming in his head as he transforms and attacks the thing in front of Adrian head-first. 

_Let’s get this thing out of here_. 

* * *

When Adrian Andrews wakes up, her memory of the past few minutes is a blur. As her vision clears, she sees someone she absolutely doesn’t want to see.

’Why the hell are you here?’

Matt is standing in front of her, having something in his hand she can’t quite see. ‘How did you escape from prison? You came back to torment me, right?’

The man simply shrugs. ‘If that’s what you want to make of it.’, He doesn’t care too much about her, but as he needs her for his plan, he decides not to walk away. ‘How I escaped from prison is none of your business.’

‘Sure it’s my business!’, Adrian shouts. ‘You were the one behind everything that ruined me! Have you forgotten? How the hell are you so apathetic that you can just seek out the victim you messed up the most and treat them like they’re just someone they have nothing to do with?’

‘Hey, hey, calm down.’, Matt displays none of the panic Adrian shows. ‘I’m not planning on walking out on you. That would be dumb.'

Adrian raises her voice. 'What the hell do you want, then?'

'I want to get back into my old mansion, and they gave the key to you. After all, I've gone through almost a year without Shoe.', he speaks calmly. 'And I missed him terribly.'

'It's true that they gave me the key, yes.', Adrian rolls her eyes. 'But why should I give it to you? They'll get you and put you back in jail sooner or later.'

Matt crosses his arms in confidence. 'They won't. I'm sure.' He gives the creature at his feet a quick wink, confusing Adrian, who cannot see it. However, she can see the silver ring around the middle finger of his left hand, and wonders where he got it.

Adrian frowns. ‘How can you be so sure?’ 

He pauses, and then simply shrugs. ‘Call it a hunch. Now, give me the key.’

‘Wh-’

‘Give. me. the. key.’ Matt knows that Adrian is clearly confused by everything that has been going on - her memories of the past few minutes being vague, then waking up to see her worst enemy in front of her eyes, who’s asking for the key to his house all happening in quick succession without any breathing room. 

‘Never.’ Adrian still remains adamant in not giving him the key. 

Matt steps towards her, and summons his spear from the ring around his finger. ‘What a pity.’

She gasps, taking a step back towards the wall. ‘Where…how?’ 

‘I’ll just have to take it.’, In a swift move, he snatches her wallet and takes out the key not long after. ‘There we go. That was not so hard, was it?’ He pushes the wallet back in her hands and the weapon disappears.

Adrian is left speechless by it all, her mind still in the middle of processing it. ‘This has to be a nightmare…’

‘And hey. This is far from over. Expect a message from me soon.’ He points at her as he looks into her eyes. Before Adrian can say something back, he runs away. She watches him leave, unsure of what to do now.

* * *

Not long after…

‘Hah. Home sweet home.’ Matt closes the door behind him and the familiar sight of the interior of his own house appears in front of him. But he only cares about one thing.

‘Shoe!’ His trusted tabby cat comes running towards him, and Matt picks him up. ‘Long time no see. Let’s get you some food, huh?’ he mumbles as he gives him a few good pets.

As he opens the kitchen cabinet, he still finds a bag of cat food inside. _They kept it at the same place. Good._ He knows that during the time he was in prison, they sent someone to feed Shoe because he could not do that anymore. Despite that, he doesn’t worry about the police one day entering his house again. He pours some food into Shoe’s bowl and refreshes the water in the other bowl next to it. The small kitty rushes towards it and digs in.

‘Now he’s taken care of for now…’

He walks away from the kitchen and the portrait of Celeste on top of his desk catches his eye. ‘Celeste…’ Matt cracks a small grin. 

‘What was this...oh, yeah.’, He picks up the paper next to the portrait that initially seemed strange to him, and remembers that he stole it from Juan. _This was the last song he ever wrote. It wasn’t even for the Jammin’ Ninja - talk about a waste of time. Shame that I never got to read it_. ‘I can read this now, I guess.’

> _I don’t recognize who’s in my bed_   
>  _I know I used to love him but I can’t pretend_   
>  _All we do is scream and fight_   
>  _Cruel through the day, selfish lover at night_   
>  _Am I a stranger to you too?_   
>  _Don’t love me like you promised to_   
>  _So why am I so sad to leave you?_
> 
> _Why am I_   
>  _Doing everything I can to justify your arrogance_   
>  _Your cruelty, and your neglect? I can’t pretend cause_
> 
> _I know there’s no saving us now_   
>  _This point I’m just burnt out from pleasing you_   
>  _I hate that, I hate that, I hate that I hate you_
> 
> _Stone cold to the touch_   
>  _Eyes vacant, you’re not enough_   
>  _So selfish, can’t keep up_   
>  _I hate that, I hate that, I hate that I hate you_
> 
> _Do you think about it like I do?_   
>  _Is it me in your mind when you’re with someone new?_   
>  _Tryna map out in my head_   
>  _How we got here from where we started_   
>  _Take or leave, I should have gone_   
>  _Got stuck tryna right your wrongs_
> 
> _Doing what I can I compromised and bled I_   
>  _Got down on my knees for nothing cause you’re_
> 
> _Stone cold to the touch_   
>  _Eyes vacant, you’re not enough_   
>  _So selfish, can’t keep up_   
>  _I hate that, I hate that, I hate that I hate you_
> 
> _I know there’s no saving us now_   
>  _This point I’m just burnt out from pleasing you_   
>  _I hate that, I hate that, I hate that I hate you_

Matt can’t resist a small chuckle. ‘So that’s how he felt about that, huh.’ He places it back, next to Celeste’s portrait. 

After all, he likes to keep his trophies in the same place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song Juan wrote is an actual song! You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgyO9bNbfb8. I wanted to put in a song that he could have written as something he'd see as a trophy, similar to Celeste's portrait. And I was listening to this during the writing process of this fic, and I think it fits perfectly (despite it being sung by a female singer).


End file.
